This might explain why you’re not a ‘math person.’ A movement to help 2025, 10:47 a.m. ET

This might explain why you’re not a ‘math person.’ A movement to help students understand rather than memorize has had sprawling effects, including pushback on teaching methods like timed tests.Portrait of N’dea Yancey-BraggN’dea Yancey-BraggUSA TODAYUpdated Dec. 27, 2025, 10:47 a.m. ET

Latrenda Knighten has always liked math.

As a child, she remembers breezing through timed tests—high-speed, low stakes assignments that challenge students to complete a number of simple problems in a short amount of time. Knighten couldn’t understand why the drills, sometimes called mad minutes, sparked “extreme anxiety” in some of her siblings and fellow students.

So when she became a teacher herself, Knighten gave her students timed tests multiple times per week. The response shocked her.

“My students had a breakdown. They were crying because they couldn’t do it that quickly. … This was part of the curriculum, but because of how it affected my students, I stopped using them because we weren’t getting any productive results,” said Knighten.